Having a Good RMA Experience

RMA or return merchandise authorization is when you send back a defective product to the manufacturer of the product while it is still under their warranty. They have to give you what is called a RMA number, which means that they know that you are sending back a product that is still covered. Once you have this number you ship your product to them, and they ship a replacement back to you.

Just recently, I had to ship out a Western Digital hard drive from my computer. I did not know that I had the option to send it back to them. I figured I had to go buy myself a new hard drive, as the drive was a few years old. A friend of mine mentioned I should check if it is still covered, as most hard drive manufacturers have a three or five year warranty on it. I typed in the numbers that the online application asked for, finding them by using the included pictures, and once it said that the hard drive was still covered, I began to read all that I had to do to make sure my RMA went off without a hitch.

Steps I took that may help you include:

• Print Out two copies of the RMA request sheet that has all your details, including the serial number of the part you are sending back.
• Keep one copy somewhere safe, while putting the other copy with the item you are sending back.
• Write the RMA number in large numbers on all sides of the box you are using to return your item.
• Package up the product the best you can using foam, or bubble wrap. Do not use newspaper, as it will not protect the item well.
• Make sure that in the box is the RMA request form, with your return address.
• Make sure to put your return address on the box.
• When sending through the mail, make sure you have proper insurance and tracking on the item.
• Stay in touch through the website, e-mail or telephone with the company that you sent the product to.

After a while, you will have the exact same product you sent out, but hopefully without the problems you originally had.

For computer parts, you might be required to wrap the item in an anti-static bag. If you do not have one of these handy, going to any local computer shop, and they will usually be happy to give you one of the hundreds of extras they have. Some will even do the RMA for you, if you bought the part there or not.

Making sure you do the whole process correctly will ensure that you have less problems and less time apart from whatever you sent, be it a camera, speakers, or like myself, a hard drive.

Choosing an Effective Password

Think that the password for your computer system, e-mail, web site, web forum is secure? Well, you might be wrong.

There are many programs on the Internet that can allow someone to repeatedly enter words from the dictionary into your user name and password field to attempt to gain access. This type of attack is called a brute force hack. As many times your user name for certain things is your e-mail address or the word admin, all the malicious person has to do is figure out your log-in name and run this application for hours or even days to see if you have made your password a word contained in the dictionary file.

Common excuses I get from people I tell this to include: â€œBut it’s hard to remember a number or something that I don’t use on a day to day basis.”

While I can understand and relate to that, having a secure password can reduce the amount of problems, and security issues you have to worry about. Also, many times if you create a properly secure password, you can use that one password on almost any site, as it will work for sites that require you to come up with a reasonable length password containing certain items.

One way to make a secure password, but simple to remember is to use an everyday word, but by making letters of the word into numbers, it makes it harder for a malicious user to guess my password.

Something that looks like the letter, for example, you can make an “E” into a 3. The word “Example” thus turns into “3xample”.

Most applications and sites now tell you to make at least one letter of the word you have chosen to be your password capitalized. Since many sites have it set up that a lower case “n” is not the same as an uppercase “N”, this makes it harder to figure out which letters of the word you have chosen to capitalize. For example, “WaShINgtoN”.

If you really want a secure password you can mix this two concepts. Here is an example of how the combination might look. Example: “4lPhaB3t”, which would be “alphabet”. Notice how the 4 looks like a little like an “A”?

One last tip to creating an effective password is that the longer you make your password the harder it is going to be for someone to figure it out.

Remembering these simple rules will help keep your things private.